Under warm conditions and in front of a packed home crowd, Lincoln’s varsity baseball team won the Pioneer Valley League crown in a place they wanted to win it — at home.

Behind six strong innings by starter Jordan Erickson and the help of three RBIs from Charles Middleton, the Fighting Zebras sealed the league title with a 6-1 victory Thursday afternoon against Colfax.

“I feeling really excited because my freshman year, we didn’t get a chance to win the PVL (and) to come out on top really means a lot,” Middleton told The Beacon.

Lincoln came out of the gates swinging as Middleton had a two-run RBI single in the bottom of the first, then an RBI double in the third. Miles Coffee also had RBI single in the inning to put the Zebras up 4-0 after three.

Sealing the game in the sixth was Isaiah Garcia’s RBI triple, followed by another RBI triple, this time by Erickson.

On the mound, Erickson would occasionally allow a Falcon runner to reach base, but they could never muster a rally thanks to his dominating control and the Zebra defense which had his back.

“I trusted my defense,” said Erickson. “Isaiah (Garcia) made some great plays for me out there. Robbie (Higgins) with the diving play up the middle, I just trust my team. “

During the game, Zebra Coach Jon O’Connor was mum on the bench about what was on the line, but he did hint to his team prior to the game about the significance of a win.

“To be honest, I didn’t tell them anything during the game,” he said. “Before the game I told them, ‘you put yourself in this situation and now it’s up to you.’”

In the top of the seventh, a mild rally began for the Falcons as Ray Henry hit an RBI single. But reliever Miles Coffee struck out the last batter with the bases loaded and the celebration began for the 2015 PVL champs.

“For us, it’s something we’ve worked hard for throughout the course of the season,” said O’Connor, who is in his first year as coach. “It was goal number one, these guys have competed really well to put themselves in this position, so we were able to capitalize.”